Caroline essay

Caroline Burlingham
Mr. Salsich
Honors English
November 12, 2008
Now and Then:
A reaction to an essay by N. Scott Momaday

1) They say that when you die, “Your life flashes before your eyes.” 2) This being said, is it possible for somebody else's life to “flash before your eyes,” after they pass away? 3) In a way, this is what happened to N. Scott Momaday in his essay called “The Way to Rainy Mountain.” 4) This emotion filled essay about the passing of a family member and their life related to me in many ways.

TS. N. Scott Momaday’s essay was not only an emotional story, but a connection in some ways to the life of my grandmother. SD. I know how it feels to have a grandmother pass away and not be there by her side. CM. Although I don’t, “Think of her as a child,” I did seem to notice that she started to act as one as her time was impending (FAST). CM. The very minute that the silence overcame her, I was buying a cell phone and the fact that I knew what was happening, filled me with guilt for the rest of the summer. SD. He talks about the journey that his grandmother and his people made, and once again, I thought of my grandma. CM. Her journey was not across lands, but through health and sickness. CM. My grandfather joined the sickening journey to comfort her, but eventually, he was the one who had to decide whether to turn off the machines or not. SD. When N. Scott Momaday revisits his grandmother’s old home, he describes the feeling by writing, “The walls have closed in upon my grandmother’s house.” CM. When I go to my grandfather’s house and happily greet him, I see those walls wrapped around him as he tries to smile back (3 ACTIONS). CM. After seeing death, or in my case, missing a death, no one is the same; even though we move on, we will never forget. CS. After finishing this poignant (FAST) story, I truly began to think of how similar the two stories are even though there is a whole forty-one years of difference stuffed between them.

1) In the end of N. Scott Momaday’s essay, he sees how the land has moved on. 2) This evidence of time shines brightly for me because it proves that there is still more to live and do. 3) I know now that it is ok to miss and regret, but it is never ok to let something like this stop you from living to the fullest. After all he and his people have been though, “The long yellow grass on the mountain [still] shone in the bright light, and a scissortail [still] hied above the land.”